Buried in the depths of cyberspace, a site created by two Duke graduate students is a resource on everything Duke for students living in China.
Physics graduate students Xing Zong and Wei Chen-both of whom are Chinese international students-created DukeChina.org in 2005 to bring international Chinese students together within the Duke community and promote Duke to Chinese students seeking an education in the U.S.
Initially used mainly as a source for students to share names of the best local restaurants and barber shops, DukeChina.org has since grown globally and received over 1.2 million hits since its debut.
Although the Web site targets mainly graduate students at Duke, undergraduate students and students from other universities access the site daily to learn about functions sponsored by the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association, the organization that now maintains DukeChina.org.
These functions serve to promote social interaction and interactive learning within the international Chinese community, something that is rarely practiced in a traditional Chinese education, said Zhizhong Li, current president of DCSSA and a graduate student in molecular cancer biology.
The site, published in a combination of Chinese and English, is updated three times a week and has links to articles written by current Chinese international students about their experiences at Duke.
From DukeChina.org, students are able to access information pertaining to the admissions process such as the University's average TOEFL and GRE scores, expectations and requirements in an American college setting and activities hosted by DCSSA during Chinese festivals and holidays.
Located on Duke's campus, the 17 members of DCSSA work independently of the University's official recruitment efforts, spreading Duke's name in China.
Currently at a peak, Duke's international student population has grown over the past 10 years. Today, Duke has an eight-percent international undergraduate student population, 164 of whom are in the class of 2011, said Samuel Carpenter, assistant director of Undergraduate Admissions.
Since last year, the number of international Chinese graduate and undergraduate students has grown from 416 students to a current 425, said Carlisle Harvard, director of International House.
After the events at the Fuqua School of Business earlier this year when 34 graduate students-many of them Asian-were accused of cheating on a take-home exam, views of Asian students have changed, Li said. He added that he hopes the Chinese Culture Week events planned for the end of this month will aid in bridging the communication gap between the Chinese international community and the rest of the Duke student body.
"Before I came to Duke I had no idea about Duke, but as soon as I came here I fell in love with this Gothic wonderland and I think I'm a pretty good Blue Devil," Zong said. "In terms of international outreach, Duke still has a lot of catching up [to do] compared to other universities, so in that case, I'm very glad that we can build this kind of bridge to help Duke build its reputation in China."
Not everyone finds DukeChina.org entirely helpful, however.
"I do not think it is of much help for [undergraduate] applicants," said Yilin Ding, a sophomore from Beijing, "And it seems that the Web site is not intended for high-schoolers in the first place. It's just not its intended purpose."
Still, Li said the site gets nearly 5,000 hits a day.
For international Chinese students and families, Harvard, Yale and Stanford are the American universities, Li said. DukeChina.org attempts to broaden their horizons with the resources they have available.
"When I go back [to China] and people ask me where I go, I say 'Duke' and they say, 'What's that? Is it like a community college or something?'" Li said. "So it's very important to educate Chinese students and show them that Duke's a very good university. Then we can educate the parents."
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